America’s Cup, the well-known sailing competition, was the focus of tonight’s Cupcake Wars. The winner of tonight’s contest would serve their cupcakes at a party celebrating the event.

The Contestants

All of tonight’s contestants were bakers without a storefront. First, there was a husband and wife team from California. They desired to win the competition to get a storefront and serve their cupcakes daily. Next was a San Diego online cupcake and catering business that is totally vegan. There was also baker from Orlando, and a baker/caterer from New York who needed the money to buy a cupcake/food truck.

Round 1

In round 1, contestants were required to create a tasty cupcake using sea ingredients such as crab, lobster, scallops, seaweed and anchovies. The California baker wanted to present a cupcake that was all about seaweed, but when she added cinnamon to the batter, the cake became more about the cinnamon, and less about seaweed. When facing the judges, Florian liked the chocolate, caramel and anchovy cake made by one contestant, but Candace did not like it. The vegan baker was opposite in that Candace liked her scallop and seaweed cupcake (minus the mascarpone frosting), but Florian didn’t like it. The California baker was told she took the easy way out with a cake that combined seaweed and spices. Thus, both Candace and Florian were hard on her and thought the cupcake was just average. The judge’s were also less than impressed with the other contestant’s cupcakes. After deliberation, the judges opted to send the California baker home because of her lack of creativity.

Round 2

The second challenge required contestants to make three cupcakes representative of the history of the America’s Cup. These cupcakes would be judged on both taste and presentation. The New York bakers made a big error, however, by putting both their strawberry cupcakes and banana cupcakes in the same baking pan. After time, the strawberry cupcakes were burning, and the banana cupcake not done. Separating them, however, caused the cupcakes to fall. Nonetheless, there was no time to make more so they had to just go with them. Additionally, she had little time to decorate the cupcakes and thus they were not very attractive.

Stars of this round included a root beer float and tiramisu cupcake. In terms of decorations, there was a nautical logo and a candied Golden Gate bridge. This was a really tough round with strong comments. In fact, all of the bakers were said to have failed this round. The New York baker, however, was told that her cakes made the judges seasick, so she was sent home.

The Final Round

The final or master round would challenge bakers to create 1,000 cupcakes along with a cupcake display for the America’s Cup event party. To help complete the task, each contestant was given added assistants and a carpenter. Midway through this round, it seemed the San Diego or vegan baker would be the clear winner as the Orlando baker had failed to put baking soda in her ginger cake. Nonetheless, she fought back by baking the cakes all over again.

Both contestants made displays in the shape of a boat and made changes to their recipes to impress the judges. The Orlando contestant, however, made her display more specific to the America’s Cup event. Thus she was the winner.

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